Intervertebral implants including interbody spacer portions and mechanically coupled plate portions are known in the art for restoring disc height, allowing fusion to occur between the adjacent vertebral bodies, and for providing stable fixation during healing.
It is desirable to construct a zero-profile implant wherein bone fixation elements that secure the implant to the vertebral bodies are blocked from backing-out of the bone and/or plate.
Additionally, it is desirable to construct a zero-profile implant that includes polyaxial bone fixation element couplings and features that prevent the implant from being implanted too deeply into a prepared disc space. Both screw back-out and over-insertion of the implant into a prepared disc space can have an adverse impact on the performance of the implant.